Milan

Amplified Refinement. Loro Piana SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

The anonymous creative team behind Loro Piana doesn’t only deliver some of the most exquisitely made tailoring and cashmeres (this spring, blended with linen for extra-lightness and fluidity), but also challenge themselves – and their customers – with dandy-ish, subtly off-kilter styling. Wonderfully simple, silk pleated mini-dress is worn with a chic-looking milk-maid bonnet. An aristocratic cape dress is styled with ribbed socks and suede slippers. Silk scarves are fashioned into ad hoc handbags. Then, a highly impressive embroidered and shaved cashmere jacket in cocoon-shape looks like a very price-y vintage piece. Suede-collared country jacket and a linen-silk herringbone suit were amongst the many fine, equally eclectic and sophisticated items for men. There’s certainly something absolutely dignified about Loro Piana’s take on minimalism, making it stand out in this highly-saturated niche.

Here are some of my favorite Loro Piana pieces, just in time for your festive shopping!

ED’s DISPATCH:

Loro Piana Alpe Di Mera Ripstop-trimmed Cashmere Sweater


Loro Piana Ikeda Ribbed Silk And Cotton-blend Midi Skirt


Loro Piana Spagna Flax Jacket


Loro Piana Calza Noel Jacquard-knit Cashmere Socks


Loro Piana Engadin Hooded Crochet-knit Cashmere Scarf


Loro Piana Floaty Leather-trimmed Macramé Lace Flats


Loro Piana Holiday Noel Fair Isle Cashmere-jacquard Turtleneck Sweater

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

NET-A-PORTER Limited

Taste. Bottega Veneta Resort 2025

| Design & Culture by Ed

Matthieu Blazy brings something growingly rare in fashion today: clothes that spark not just joy, but happiness. His recent collections for Bottega Veneta ooze with unabashed dolce vita; they make you want to live life colorfully and boldly. This is also the case with resort 2025 line-up, which is beautifully eclectic and full of playful idiosyncrasy. “There was no big concept,” Blazy said of this pre-season collection. “It was more about: How can we put things together and when it comes to the individual ingredients, does it make your heart beat?” That might be the exact answer why Bottega – of all the Kering brands – performs so well. It makes the customers’ hearts beat. When I visited the brand’s newly-refurbished store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris last month, I was more than pleased with the actual emotions the brand’s garments and accessories bring, but also with their non-conformity and exquisite craftsmanship. The resort collection captures that perfectly – and feels like a delightful menu of unpretentious, wholesome meals that please all the taste buds. The food affiliation isn’t a co-incidence. “I rewatched a lot of Anthony Bourdain. There are a lot of parallels between the pleasure of cooking and the pleasure of putting things together on the silhouette. What I really wanted to do this season, it was pure pragmatically epicurean. I just took everything I like. It was like in Italy, when the ingredients are good, you don’t need to do too much with it,” Blazy summed up. How that translates to the clothes? Head-to-toe, saturated colors; experimental intrecciato patterns; extremes of full silhouettes; fish-prints (inspired with the late Gaetano Pesce’s art); massive, artisan knitwear. And plenty of individual taste.

Spice up your wardrobe with a couple of Bottega ingredients…

ED’s SELECTION:

Bottega Veneta Canalazzo Striped Intrecciato Leather Pumps


Bottega Veneta Large Fin Gold Vermeil And Enamel Earrings


Bottega Veneta Striped Knitted Wool Sweater


Bottega Veneta Paneled Cotton Midi Skirt


Bottega Veneta Embellished Ruffled Draped Two-tone Crepe Top


Bottega Veneta Resin And Gold-tone Earrings


Bottega Veneta Intrecciato Leather Gloves


Bottega Veneta Lauren 1980 Maxi Intrecciato Leather Clutch

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

NET-A-PORTER Limited

Idea of Wow. Bottega Veneta SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Bottega Veneta show was livid. It made you love living life! Matthieu Blazy really starts feeling the Italian air and flair of dolce vita. His spring-summer 2025 was a joyous, vibrant finale of Milan Fashion Week – and a reminder to let your inner child out from time to time. “I was interested in the idea of wow, the wonder you have as a kid when you try something – it’s almost like primal fashion, your first experience of fashion when you try your parents’ clothes,” the designer said. He showed too-big jackets and one-leg pants under asymmetrical wrap skirts, and pieces like a black tank dress and khaki and navy shirtdresses with built-in wrinkles like they’d been crushed at the bottom of a trunk waiting for a game of dress-up. The details were pure fun: frogs perching at the neckline of a dress and clinging to the heels of shoes, lapels in the shape of bunnies on leather coats, a scarf top printed with giant fish. Humor was all over the spiky wigs and flower bouquets made out of leather (of course, it’s Bottega!). Blazy’s enthusiasm is perceptible and catching. This is exactly what we need in 2024.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Dada-Chic. Bally SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

In my opinion, the silent revolution going on at Bally is the most exciting phenomenon in Milan. Simone Bellotti’s vision of the brand very smartly – and with lots of wit – references Switzerland, the homeland of Bally. On the spring-summer 2025 moodboard, he had an eclectic mix of imagery, but one portrait stood out, that of Hugo Ball, the sound-poetry author and founder of the Dada movement in 1916 Zürich. Surrounding Ball’s image were photos of rustic, oddly-shaped cowbells, rusted shoehorns, and Man Ray’s artwork The Gift – a flat iron with thumbtacks glued along its sole. What captivated Bellotti about Ball’s portrait was the striking costume: a tall cylindrical hat and a metallic cone-shaped cape, with a stiff high collar framing his face. “I like its simple precision,” Bellotti remarked. Bellotti revisited the mountain-like, sloped-shoulder silhouette throughout the collection, integrating it into the necklines of coats and blazers. In some ensembles, this shape was paired with curved lines inspired by cowbells, reinterpreted as rounded miniskirts – some of which were lifted at the front to reveal matching culottes beneath. The concept was great, but the effect looked ill-fitting most of the time. Still, there was a standout piece: a burgundy leather coat featuring a sloped collar and shoulders, with a cinched waist that flared into a poufy pannier skirt (very Prada autumn-winter 2009).

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!

Toi, Toi, Toi. Ferragamo SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

Maximilian Davis‘ spring-summer 2025 collection for Ferragamo is dedicated to modern dance. Seen through a slightly sinister lens of Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” remake (the monotonous curtains of the show’s venue were very Tanz Akademie, very Madame Blanc), images of Nureyev (who apparently danced in the Ferragamo shoes) and ballet photographs by Hans van Manen, this was a tribute to rough-around-the-edges sort of dance. Loose trench coats with dropped-waist belting, field jackets and sectioned skirts were cut in metal-spiked nylon. The menswear emanated that ’80s off-duty ballet hunk vibe that Nureyev so powerfully emanated – this was further transmitted in a great, oversized black leather pea coat. Leggings, bodies, and ribboned pointed-toe pumps were worn with double wrapped tops that mirrored the classic ballet cardigan. It’s well-known fact that Ferragamo is having a hard time commercially, but Davis does everything he can to make the brand feel like a place to go back to – and investment in.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
Don’t forget to follow Design & Culture by Ed on Instagram!

Hey, did you know about my newsletter – Ed’s Dispatch? Click here to subscribe!